The Juicy Fruits, Phantom of the Paradise, 1973. Director Brian De Palma’s art v commerce opus began peculating in 1969 when shocked to hear The Beatles’ A Day In The Life as Musak in a lift… He wanted to use a real band… as his bands. Neither rock groups or their record companies were much interested in the unknown Brian De Whosis? As the Liverpudlians had self-destructed, he thought of the Stones, of course. They had, after all, starred in Sympathy For The Devil, 1968, for no less a director than Jean-Luc Godard. (He also cast my first wife, Jeannette Wild). The Stones passed, but Mick Jagger remained a target for Swan, the film’s manipulative, Dorian Grayish rock icon - a kind of Performance II!

The Beach Bums, Phantom of the Paradise, 1973. Booked to play Swan, pop composer-performer Paul Williams said he needed to build a group to cope with three different music styles. Together with director Brian De Palma, he started forming their own band(s)... the night before The Off!

The Undead, Phantom of the Paradise, 1973. Paul Williams called in fellow songwriter Jeff Comanor. Brian De Palma saw John Belushi’s replacement, Harold Oblong, in Broadway’s Lemmings - and he brought in Archie Hahn, another improvisational comic. Gently mix the trio and voilà, three instant (but different) groups… “It was an era when people were letting young directors make all kind of films,” De Palma said. “For a while.”